Argentis wrote:Steve and John are noobs just starting playing Salem. They each play exactly 45 hours a week. John spent money in the game in order to buy 20 Mysterytoolboxes, Steve didn't. Who do you think is gonna have more money, a bigger base and more stats at the end of the month (providing they share the same level of "skill")?

Let's say John was lucky and got two very usefull tools, and not a pitchfork or even two, saw and a shovel. They both will start from building 10 board piles, a shop saw will save John about 30 minutes comparing to Steve, which is about 0,4% of the duration of the whole dry boards making cycle. Surely Steve can manage to squeeze in average of 5 more minutes/day to catch up with John or not to be too upset about being 30 minutes behind after a week of gameplay. Additional food provided by gardening shovel will help John aswell, let's say they both have 10 pots. Steve has to make one time investment into making 5 more pots to catch up with John - doesn't sound like too long, especially since every day of playing will bring time investment closer and closer to 0.

The only real difference shop can make for those two is if John will buy 10k silver worth of goddies and get a townbell going on day one, but this only matters on the first week after wipe, i.e. hopefully never on Providence.

Well if they spent the same amount of time John would be slightly more advanced than Steve (true only slightly but it can without a doubt be considered as an advantage, as small as it may be) which was my point. And that's also why I don't mind the Pay2Win in Salem because it is somewhat balanced and it is not permanent (you can get your tools stolen, your character can die, etc).

Argentis wrote:[Steve and John are noobs just starting playing Salem. They each play exactly 45 hours a week. John spent money in the game in order to buy 20 Mysterytoolboxes, Steve didn't. Who do you think is gonna have more money, a bigger base and more stats at the end of the month (providing they share the same level of "skill")?

By the end of the month Steve has found John and noticed hes a carebear and has shiny tools. Whilst john makes farms. Steve works to get larceny. John soon has no tools.

Argentis wrote:[Steve and John are noobs just starting playing Salem. They each play exactly 45 hours a week. John spent money in the game in order to buy 20 Mysterytoolboxes, Steve didn't. Who do you think is gonna have more money, a bigger base and more stats at the end of the month (providing they share the same level of "skill")?

By the end of the month Steve has found John and noticed hes a carebear and has shiny tools. Whilst john makes farms. Steve works to get larceny. John soon has no tools.

Ahah nice one ;p. But by the time Steve realizes that, John has already sold 5 Mystery Toolboxes, bought a townbell, made an alt and bought a Memento Mori, has 100 stats more than Steve, KO'd Steve and killed him with his alt for a simple value of 110$ USD.

Argentis wrote:Ahah nice one ;p. But by the time Steve realizes that, John has already sold 5 Mystery Toolboxes, bought a townbell, made an alt and bought a Memento Mori, has 100 stats more than Steve, KO'd Steve and killed him with his alt for a simple value of 110$ USD.

Argentis wrote:Ahah nice one ;p. But by the time Steve realizes that, John has already sold 5 Mystery Toolboxes, bought a townbell, made an alt and bought a Memento Mori, has 100 stats more than Steve, KO'd Steve and killed him with his alt for a simple value of 110$ USD.

10$ alt please. The alt wouldn't have the tools on him, John isn't an idiot (or maybe he is dunno). But sure paying for tools is not everything and Steve may win but I don't think the odds are in his favor.

Am I the only one who finds it silly whenever things like cash shop tools are mentioned as odds-changing factors?Isn't HoB full of examples of big spenders, people who put a lot of time and effort into the game, people with high humours and zerg towns simply getting nuked by smaller groups with weaker chars?

If someone talks about being able to build 5 more timber piles within an hour letting him win the game then I'm not sure if we are talking about the same game.

I could understand it if we were talking about a game with a very streamlined gameplay, with limited options, where all players are at very similar level of power, where even 1% difference in any way may give or take a victory. But Salem is not this kind of a game.

silver isnt really hard to get, at all. Steve can buy the same tools from Johns stall, and get the same tools without spending irl money. Or, he can quit being a cheap ass, and realize that someone, somewhere is coding alot.. ALOT of **** into this game, and support that effort with a couple bucks. Marp don't code falcons for free ya know.

Procne wrote:Am I the only one who finds it silly whenever things like cash shop tools are mentioned as odds-changing factors?Isn't HoB full of examples of big spenders, people who put a lot of time and effort into the game, people with high humours and zerg towns simply getting nuked by smaller groups with weaker chars?

Yes, skill, practice and willingness to take risks provide a much greater advantage than any of the things we offer in the show as far as we can see and John can look directly at the server records so we do get a pretty good idea what effect the items have.